Initial relationship development in new business ventures

This paper seeks to investigate some of the issues faced by an existing company when developing the initial customer relationships for a new venture. All companies face the challenge of new-relationship development in order to achieve growth and to replace relationships which have been lost or are in decline. But the challenge of developing the first customer relationships of a new venture is likely to be particularly acute because the new venture's marketing function and its offering to customers are likely to be undefined and undeveloped. This paper is based on a case study of initial customer relationship development in a new venture of an established business. The paper analyses the issues that the company faced in developing these initial relationships and the approaches to relationship development that it took. The case analysis leads to the conclusion that the development of initial relationships can be facilitated by an ‘open marketing function’ involving a number of functional areas both in the supplier and in the initial customers. The paper draws managerial implications from the case analysis for the task of marketing in this situation.     

The entrepreneurial imagination and the impact of context on the development of a new venture

This paper sets out to explore the impact of a new venture's context on its development. The study consists of a single case study based on a new venture attempting to exploit an opportunity in the life sciences and charts the impact that the context, in particular actors that the venture are trying to gain resources from, have upon the plans, activities and resources developed by this nascent firm. Spanning the time period of 1999-2006, this case outlines four periods of development of the venture. This accounts for the initial plans of the venture, their struggle to gain venture financing, the development of the venture's technological resources and the attempts to create commercial relationships. The study shows the impact that institutions used in a context have on this venture leading to, among other things, the discovery of IP, finding a CEO and developing a product line.     

Client dependence and vendor innovation: The moderating role of organizational culture

With the dramatic increase in technological interconnectedness between firms and the overall speed of technological change, organizations depend on each other to survive and stay competitive. While it is generally believed that dyads and networks can offer advantages over internal development in the innovation process, the authors suggest that it is not necessarily the case. Using a sample of 120 vendor firms that work in information technology industries in the Indian subcontinent, they find that client dependence in the inter-organizational relationship decreases vendor innovation. To resolve this dark side of business relationships, they further examine how the organizational culture can impact the dependence-innovation relationship. In line with organization literature, the authors distinguish two sub-dimensions of outcome-oriented culture: performance orientation, which reflects a firm's internal focus on employee performance, and competitiveness, which reflects a firm's focus on external competitors and markets. It is found that a vendor's competitiveness facilitates innovation, and that it weakens the negative effect of client dependence on vendor innovation. However, performance orientation strengthens the negative effect of client dependence on vendor innovation. Accordingly, in order to prevent themselves from falling into the dependence trap in the innovation process, firms need to build an externally oriented competitive culture and avoid overemphasizing their internal performance.     

The role of supplier relationships in the development of new business ventures

New business ventures have rather limited resources, generally suffer from liabilities of smallness and newness and rely on external business relationships, typically with suppliers, for developing and acquiring necessary resources. Yet, to date, research on how new ventures develop initial relationships with suppliers and how these affect the nascent business has been limited. Taking the business network perspective and relating it to studies of supply chain and supplier involvement in product development, our study contributes to the rather limited body of knowledge on new ventures' supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a longitudinal, in-depth single-case study of the first two years of operation of a start-up. Our study shows that the development of the key initial supplier relationships starts from open-ended expectations of mutual future relational benefits and involves a stepwise ‘inter-definition’ of solutions in interaction between the parties. We observe that interdependences arise between the new venture and its key suppliers and these enable but also limit, the development paths of both partners. We argue that the key initial supplier relationships extend a new venture's resource and capability base and are an integral part of a new venture's business model.     

The business model in entrepreneurial marketing: A communication perspective on business angels' opportunity interpretation

Entrepreneurial marketing has emerged as a recent perspective within the marketing field, taking the challenges and characteristics of small firms and founding teams into account. Specifically, in the early stages of entrepreneurial marketing, besides potential customers a variety of other stakeholders tend to be in the center of attention. Among these stakeholders, business angels as early-stage investors represent a vital target group. In this paper, we aim to shed light on entrepreneurial marketing in the early phases of new venture creation, in which entrepreneurial firms have an inherent need to market the value of a business opportunity toward potential investors. In particular, we contribute to the literature by introducing the business model as a narrative device for the marketing of early-stage new ventures toward potential business angels. In this regard, the business model is suggested as playing a critical role through making the inherent economic value of a technology explicit. Building on narrative theory, we investigate the role that the business model plays in the decision-making process of 17 business angels. Based on our findings, we propose a model that links the business model to a business angel's interpretation of an investment opportunity and discuss implications for theory and practice.     

Sense-making and agenda construction in emerging business networks — How to direct radical innovation

This paper focuses on the role of sense-making and development agenda construction in emerging business fields characterized by radical innovation. First, the networked environment of emergent business fields is described. It is shown that both sense-making and agenda construction are key cognitive processes in managing in this environment. Then, a framework describing the dimensions of managerial sense-making and its antecedent factors is suggested and discussed. Finally, the phenomenon of agenda construction and communication and its role in influencing the direction of business field development is examined. Discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications concludes the paper. The paper provides significant new understanding on the roles of sense-making and agenda construction in the emergence of new business fields. It contributes both to network theory of emerging fields and management in radical innovation contexts.     

The effects of knowledge interaction for business innovation

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of knowledge interaction on different types of business innovation. We first identified three indicators that reflect on the quality of the interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and then classified business innovations as product innovation, problem-solving innovation, or general innovation capability. Hypotheses about the impact of different qualities of knowledge interaction on business innovations were tested by collecting data from 178 high-technology firms in Taiwan. The results revealed that product innovation requires both wide-ranging and deep interaction between customers and technological knowledge, that problem-solving innovation requires either wide-ranging or deeper interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and that wide-ranging knowledge interaction is the most important driver for building general innovation capability. The research results enhance our understanding of knowledge interaction, with a special focus on the content and quality of the knowledge interactions within an enterprise. It also helps business managers in allocating resources and facilitating interorganizational communications for different situations related to innovation.     

Employing New Business Divisions to Exploit Disruptive Innovations: The Interplay between Characteristics of the Corporation and Those of the Venture Management Team

Established firms often create new business divisions in response to new ways of competing, such as those based on disruptive innovations. Using a sample of daily newspapers and their Internet divisions, this study examines the corporate characteristics of orientation, attention, and control and venture management team characteristics of vision, experience, and collective efficacy and their interactive effects on the overall performance of the new division. Findings demonstrate that vision and collective efficacy are related to venture outcomes, orientation affects the experience and vision to venture performance relationships, attention enhances the vision and collective efficacy to performance relationships, and decision autonomy influences the experience and collective efficacy to venture performance relationships. Overall, the results of this study imply that specific venture management team characteristics and corporate characteristics may be tailored to improve chances of meeting specific performance targets and achieving overall venture success.     

多种方法集成的商业模式创新研究

本文针对当前商业模式构成要素及创新需求，运用类别思维、TRIZ理论中技术成熟度预测、资源分析、进化法则及商业价值评估多种方法的集成使用，对现有商业模式发展现状、构成要素的关系、各要素所拥有资源的梳理等进行全方位分析。打破以往只关注商业模式本身的问题及发展，选取商业模式中价值主张和客户界面两个要素，结合中小学商业模式所呈现的特性，综合使用多种创新方法，用动态发展的角度把握商业模式创新，为商业模式创新提供更多更丰富的路径。     

Innovation in business networks: The role of leveraging resources

This study investigates how companies innovate in their business networks. We examine the role of leveraging resources in the context of retail brand paints within the do-it-yourself (DIY) paint industry, where the role of innovation is pertinent to achieve differentiation and create value. The study investigates innovation as a process of leveraging resources within business relationships. Research findings demonstrate that manufacturers and retailers jointly leverage resources to develop and launch innovative retail brands. Companies need to carefully address these resource-leveraging processes and assess their options in developing innovations that enable sustainable growth.     

Exploring the role of spatial relationships to transform knowledge in a business idea — Beyond a geographic proximity

The “space” dimension has characterized the aggregation of firms, ranging from industrial districts to clusters. Within a local system, as emphasized by the Triple Helix model (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000), universities, firms, and public institutions generate synergies by producing and exploiting technological knowledge. From this perspective, local relationships become synonymous with spatial relationships characterized by geographic proximity. However, is it possible to find different dimensions of proximity influencing spatial relationships in order to support innovation? This paper demonstrates that different proximity dimensions influence firms' boundaries and the development of spatial relationships through which actors interact to develop resource combinations identified in innovation. After a review of the these topics, the paper provides findings related to the spatial relationships developed by Petroceramics as a hosted spin-off of the Italian Technological Pole (POINT) as well as its subsequent relocation to the Kilometro Rosso Science Park. As such, this paper deals with how technological knowledge is transformed into a business idea through spatial relationships based on different dimensions of proximity.     

Effective Control of New Product Projects: The Interaction of Organization Culture and Project Leadership

In all organizations where technological innovation plays a key role, a state of creative tension exists between those responsible for technological development of new products and the organization's need to satisfy customer demands. The need to maintain a balanced state of tension is clear. When the balance swings too far in the direction of technological development, technological wizardry runs amok. When it swings too far in the direction of satisfying customer demands, innovativeness can be stifled and technological stagnation can result. Maintaining a state of creative tension is important, then, for producing viable and technologically innovative products. A key task confronting managers, therefore, is fostering innovation while at the same time controlling and channelling it to meet the business needs of the organization. Perhaps nowhere is this need greater than in the new product development process. Edward McDonough and Richard Leifer report the results of a study which suggest that this task may be accomplished by relying on a bounded delegation style of project leadership and a culture which emphasizes a business orientation.     

The Wal-Mart Innovation Network: An Experiment in Stimulating American Innovation

The Wal-Mart Innovation Network (WIN) is a cooperative experiment designed to test an infrastructure for stimulating American innovations—new products invented and manufactured in the U.S.A. The WIN venture focuses on independent and small business inventors because it is here that WIN is likely to have the greatest impact. Contrary to the opinions of many, inventors continue to be a major source of new products, processes and services. Unlike their corporate and institutional counterparts, noncorporate inventors suffer from the lack of viable channels for getting their creative efforts to the marketplace and often are lacking in some essential resource or expertise. Rather than attempt to stimulate invention, the WIN strategy is simply to make it easier for existing ideas and inventions to reach the marketplace. In addition to other resources, WIN draws on the expertise of some 160 volunteer Wal-Mart executives, buyers and marketing specialists who provide an assessment of marketability. Although innovation is the primary focus of the WIN venture, the bottom line objective is the creation of new, domestic manufacturing jobs.     

当代创业企业的经济性质——当代科技创新劳动的市场性综合定价机制

本文认为，理解当代创业企业经济性质的初始点是当代科技创新劳动的异质性，当代科技创新劳动的异质性决定了当代科技创新劳动报酬计量的复杂性与艰巨性。当代创业企业，基本质上是一种关于当代科技创新劳动的市场性综合定价机制。在市场经济条件下，由科技创新者自身创办企业，拥有创业企业的所有权，就是对当代科技创新劳动报酬进行计量的一种市场生综合定价机制。     

Interaction behaviors in business relationships and heuristics: Issues for management and research agenda

Various empirical studies have evidenced that interaction is a critical process in the development of buyer–seller relationships in business-to-business markets. Research examining the different aspects of interaction processes and the consequences of interaction in business relationships for the development of the businesses involved has tended to black-box the interaction process. Limited attention has been given to how interaction behaviors of individuals arise and the interplay between cognition and behaviors in interaction. At the same time, recent research offers some insights into the use and role of heuristics in contexts analogous to those individual actors face when they interact in business relationships. In this paper we review current research on interaction processes in business relationships as well as on heuristics in the management context and argue that focusing on heuristics used in interaction in business relationships offers valuable insights on how interaction behaviors emerge. In particular, we discuss the notion of heuristics as an “adaptive toolbox,” and how it relates to adaptations in business relationships. We also discuss implications for management and outline a future research agenda.     

A service science perspective on business model innovation

Using four basic principles of service science, we systematically explore value-proposition design as one type of business model innovation. Service science combines organization and human understanding with business and technological understanding to categorize and explain service systems, including how they interact and evolve to cocreate value. Our goal is to apply a scientific approach to advance design and innovation in service systems. Our foundation is service-dominant logic, which provides perspective, vocabulary, and assumptions on which to build a theory. Our basic theoretical construct is the service system, entities that are dynamic configurations of four kinds of resources. Our core principles center on the way value is computed within and among entities, how interaction is based on access to resources and their capabilities, and on how value computation and interaction depend on symbol processing and language guided by mutually agreed-to value propositions. In this context, service science can inform and accelerate value-proposition design by systematizing the search for adaptive advantages that improve existing offerings, create new offerings, or reconfigure the value-creating ecosystem.     

Incapability of Technological Capability: A Case Study on Product Innovation in the Japanese Facsimile Machine Industry

Technological leadership in an industry certainly seems like a ticket to ongoing success. However, overemphasis on existing technological capabilities may produce a form of myopia in product development. In other words, by focusing primarily on developing and improving their core technologies, organizations miss opportunities to exploit new technologies and thus create breakthrough products. Ken Kusunoki proposes that problem-solving approaches in a technologically leading firm paradoxically may impede radical product innovation. Suggesting that such firms are inherently oriented toward incremental innovation, he presents a conceptual framework of the dynamic interaction between technological and product development problem-solving in the context of product innovation. He then illustrates this conceptual framework by examining a case of radical innovation in the Japanese facsimile industry. For a technological leader, product innovation typically is driven by technology development. In other words, such a firm quite reasonably relies on the technological advantage it holds over competitors as the basis for its product developments. By refining and enhancing its industry-leading technological capabilities, the firm can successfully introduce incremental innovations in its products. Because of this strong emphasis on exploiting existing technological capabilities, however, the technological leader may fail to capitalize on new technologies that can produce radical innovations. In the race to develop high-speed, digital facsimile equipment during the early 1970s, for example, Matsushita held a decided technological advantage over competitors such as Ricoh. Notwithstanding Matsushita's technological edge, however, Ricoh brought this radical innovation to market two years before Matsushita introduced its first digital machine, causing a serious decline in Matsushita's market share. Ricoh's approach to technological and product problem-solving—an autonomous team structure, with a strong project manager and frequent transfers of engineers among interdependent units—contrasts dramatically with Matsushita's functional structure and strong emphasis on technological problem-solving. Interestingly, Matsushita regained its technological advantage by 1976, thanks to a rapid series of incremental innovations in its product technologies.     

Does transformational leadership facilitate technological innovation? The moderating roles of innovative culture and incentive compensation

The present research investigates the relationships between SBU-level transformational leadership and technological innovation, as well as the moderating effects of innovative culture and incentive compensation. Paired data were gathered from 102 senior managers and 258 employees in 102 Taiwanese strategic business units (SBUs). The results indicate that transformational leadership behaviors promote technological innovation at the SBU level. Interestingly, a stronger innovative culture is a substitute for transformational leadership behavior for facilitating technological innovation. In addition, financial-incentive adoption neutralizes the relationship between transformational leadership and technological innovation.     

Resource acquisition strategies in business relationships

Integrating the IMP Group approach with aspects of the resource-based view of the firm, we seek to develop and test a typology of relationship strategies based on different resource acquisition foci. For this purpose, we conducted interviews with thirty CEOs and other senior marketing managers in the UK and the USA. In-depth content analysis identified five main resource acquisition strategies (RAS) behind building business relationships: money bonds, new market bonds, utilization bonds, intellectual bonds, and credibility bonds. We further carried out a quantitative study with 658 senior managers in the USA to test for the generalizability of our findings. Results of a one-way repeated ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression analysis show significant differences between the five RAS for business relationships. However, a pair-wise comparison provides evidence for the existence of hybrid strategies. In addition, an investigation of the association between the RAS of business relationships on the one hand, and business strategy on the other, revealed equifinality of alternative business strategies vis-à-vis the applied relationship strategy. Finally, our analysis revealed no significant differences between the distributions of RAS types for knowledge intensive versus non-knowledge intensive business services. However, we found that RAS distribution is significantly associated with company size.     

Application and performance impact of stage–gate systems – the role services in the firm’s business focus

Although service innovation is important, knowledge of new product and service development, including the positive effect of stage‐and‐gate‐type systems, has been derived almost exclusively from studies in the manufacturing sector. In the present paper, we address two important questions: How do differences in the firm’s business focus, which describes whether a firm puts more emphasis on products or services in its business activities, influence the usage of such formal innovation processes? Is stage‐and‐gate‐type systems’ impact on innovation program performance contingent on the firm’s business focus? Unlike previous studies, we not only differentiate service and manufacturing by industry classification codes but also apply a continuous measure to take into account the blurring of boundaries between the manufacturing and service businesses. Based on a comprehensive discussion of service‐specific characteristics and their implications for innovation management and using a cross‐industry, multi‐informant sample of innovation programs from 272 firms with 1,985 informants, we find empirical support for firms with a stronger focus on the service business being less likely to use stage‐and‐gate‐type systems. Furthermore, the use of stage‐and‐gate‐type systems fosters innovation program performance, and this effect becomes stronger as the business focus shifts toward services. This result implies that service‐based firms can benefit from stage‐and‐gate‐type systems to a greater extent than product‐based firms. Our research also demonstrates the gap between the desired level of innovation process formalization and its current usage in practice, especially for firms with a dominating service business.